Ariana Grande, Calvin Harris headlining Billboard Hot 100 festival at Jones Beach
Ariana Grande and Calvin Harris will headline this year’s Billboard Hot 100 Music Festival at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater on Aug. 20 and 21.
Both Grande, whose new album “Dangerous Woman” arrives Friday, and Harris, whose new single “This Is What You Came For” with Rihanna is already a smash, are expected to be two of the summer’s biggest acts.
The festival — which set Jones Beach attendance records in its debut last year, drawing the biggest one-day crowd ever (23,000) and the biggest weekend crowd (40,000) — will once again feature three stages, including one set up on the beach outside the usual theater grounds.
And once again, those stages will be filled with an eclectic mix of superstars and up-and-comers, from rappers Fetty Wap and J. Cole to EDM superstar Martin Garrix.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday through livenation.com. Citi MasterCard holders can begin purchasing pre-sale tickets starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
John Amato, president of Billboard, which produces the festival with Live Nation, said that organizers want this year’s event to feel like last year’s — which featured Justin Bieber’s comeback concert appearance, superstar sets from The Weeknd, Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne, as well as breakthrough sets from Kygo and The Chainsmokers — but with a different set of performers. “We want it to be a totally new experience each year,” he said. “We started planning it the day after last year’s festival.”